The Dollhouse
by Alice J. Nightshade
Summary: Lucie Herondale has always spent her life in the Institute, but the locked bedroom in the residential wing has made her wonder what's hiding behind that door. Finally, her parents decide that their children are ready for the truth about the locked room in their home and the bitter girl who resided there, and who they will never be able to forget. One-shot


** I don't know where the thought of this one shot came from but I wanted to see where it would go. I hope you enjoy. **

** Disclaimer: I do not own the Infernal devices **

For as long as Lucie had known there was a door that always stayed closed in the Institute. Closed doors weren't uncommon in the in the place she'd called her home, run by Tessa and Will Herondale, her parents. She'd spent many days wandering the halls, popping in and out of doors while James practiced in the attic training room. Being five years older and a boy, he didn't have time for Lucie much, especially because his first marking ceremony would be happening soon.

"You should be studying, Luce." James had told her when he found that she'd been wandering the hidden corridors between the library and the kitchen. He looked down at her with bright gold eyes under his dark tangle of hair and smiled a mischievous smile. "Dad says there are thousands of ways to kill a demon and I want to know every one of them, you should too."

Killing demons didn't hold the same appeal for Lucie has it did her brother, though she would be lying if she didn't dream of hunting alongside her family. She'd never be as good as James though, he could run faster and was much stronger than any of the other boys his age, but she would try.

Still, until then she would explore every room of the Institute and know every secret her home had to offer, but the door in the residential wing of the Institute still stumped her. While all others could be filled with fellow Shadowhunters that room always stood empty. And sometimes Lucie swore she could hear noises coming from inside it. She just had to know what was inside that locked room.

"Mama," Lucie asked curiously that dark December morning. The rain had been falling hard outside which made the attic roof leak and wet so James was with their parents chatting excitedly about his ceremony and reading from the codex. They were all in the Institute's library Will writing upon a sheet of parchment for the Clave on the large mahogany desk that Charlotte Branwell once sat and Tessa reading one of her favorite novels sitting on the windowsill where she could watch her two dark haired boys. When Will had been put in charge of running the institute a small corner of the grand library had been renamed just for the classics that both Will and Tessa loved and Lucie and James had learned to love too.

Tessa smiled, her gray eyes running along the words from her book without looking at her daughter who stood in front of her. "Yes, sweetheart?"

"You and Papa have been in the Institute forever, haven't you?" Lucie asked curiosity, her small dark brow furrowing.

Will snorted as he continued to write. "We've been around for all the good parts."

Tessa couldn't agree more with her husband, though she was sure some of the good parts for him differed from hers, and she shook her head. "No, not forever, but we've been here a long time."

"Do you know what's in that room?" Lucie tugged on her long brown hair which fell freely around her shoulders, a habit she'd never been able to break. "In the wing where everybody usually stays? The one that's always locked. What's in there?"

Tessa's body tensed and she looked up at her daughter. The little girl who possessed Will's bright blue eyes and Tessa's warm curly hair and held the same curiosity her mother had. Even Will had raised his head to look at his daughter who continued to stare up at her mother anxiously awaiting an answer.

After a long beat of silence Tessa gaze moved to Will with questioning eyes who nodded. He looked older then from when they met, more like a man then a wild teen but she still saw the wild eye boy who she'd attacked when she first met him ranting about nonsense as she always would. "I think it's time." He pushed the Clave documents away from his desk and stood, walking over to his son who continued to pour over the book, or seemed to be. Will was sure he saw a novel hidden behind the green velvet cover and tapped James' shoulder. "Come on, your mother and I have something to tell you."

"Is it about the room?" Lucie asked, as her mother stood and took her hand.

"That," Tessa admitted, with a sad but warm smile. "And so much more."

The couple led their children past the doors of the library where they'd spent so many hours talking about their favorite novels, and in most events arguing, into the hall which they called their home for so many years.

"Did I ever tell you how your father and I met?" Tessa asked, gazing down at her children. Lucie nodded excitedly and James' tawny yellow eyes shone with laughter.

"Course," James smiled wickedly, not unlike his father. "Dad says you hit him with a vase."

"It was a jug," Will reminded James, mussing up his son's dark black curls. "If you're going to tell a story you might as well get the details right. Like for instance how your mother gazed at me, her knight in shining armor right out of a book and-"

Tessa snorted. "Will. Be honest. I thought you were mad. Still do in fact."

Will's grin grew and he grabbed his wife's hand in his own scarred one. "I'm not the one who agreed to marry me."

Tessa gazed at him teasingly. "Are you saying you wouldn't have married yourself if you could've of?"

"Of course I would," Will scoffed. "I would have made a radiant bride. But I just couldn't put up with my own antics, so I married the girl who could and was twice as beautiful to look at."

"Mum, Dad?" James asked awkwardly though he was still smiling. James was used to his parents funny bickering but just as curious as his sister. "I thought you were going to tell us about that room."

"Oh," Tessa flushed. "Right." They were getting closer now, the Institute's corridors becoming more crowded with doors for Shadowhunters. "Well, I never told you how your father proposed to me, did I?"

"Oh lord," Will cried, raising his hands above him. "Why, oh why does she remember that?"

The Herondale children started giggling as their father continued to yell at the sky about the awkward fashion of courting while Tessa watched him with a bemused smile.

"He just had to be proper," Tessa continued, grinning like her children. "We took dozens of carriage rides through London, each more awkward then the next."

"I could've dressed like a woman and scare you out of your wits," The mad blue eye boy that Tessa loved pointed out to her. "Just like Jane Eyre."

"But you didn't," They stopped in front of the door that always remained closed and Will stepped forward, pulling out a long old fashioned key that had started to rust with age just so slightly. "We've kept it the same for all these years,"

Will nodded, unlocking the door slowly. "Just like she would've wanted."

Lucie turned her head slightly in an effort to gaze into the room. "Who?"

Instead of answering the door to the room swung open and the Herondale children laid their eyes on the room untouched by time.

The bed that stood against one wall was still made with white lacy sheets and blankets and the pale ivory tea pot and cups still stood on the tea table awaiting for their owner to return and pour a cup of tea like a normal woman would. The coverlet and bed was lacy and soft looking and the room smelled faintly of lavender. A familiar looking silver mirror still lay cracked on the vanity and standing on a table was-

"A doll house," Lucie cried running towards the Victorian home without a second thought. It was a grand thing, almost as if a real house had been shrunken down and placed into the room for all to see.

"Yes, Lucie." Will lead Tessa into the room, though she protested for the first second and James followed, his eyes lingering curiously on the room around him. Carefully, Will unhitched the small latch on the side and swung half the house open, revealing the interior of the Lovelace home.

The dolls were exactly where their owner had left them. The man with his stern features and dark hair sitting in his study and his beautiful wife with golden hair in the sitting room. The furniture, the curtains everything was still intact even though the years had passed. And up the stairs in a little nursery, decorated with white and pink lace stood an empty cradle.

Will had looked through the debris after the battle and found the little baby Jessie crushed to nothing above chips of porcelain and dust. He'd known Jessamine would be furious, but he couldn't replace the tiny doll because he could never remember her like that.

So, the cradle stood empty and in the nursery was a doll with fine golden hair and beautiful brown eyes that held a twinge of sadness in their faceless glass. She'd been dressed in the same gown she wore to her funeral; white did always suit her best.

"She's beautiful," Lucie said in a hushed voice.

"Is she an angel?" James wondered, gold eyes wide.

"Almost," Tessa said softly, not knowing tears were streaming down her face until Will pulled her close and she saw tears glistening in his eyes too.

Lucie gazed up at her parents. "Who is she?"

"The most stubborn woman I'd ever met," Will chuckled. "Or at least one of them. Your mother comes in a close second."

"She's the one who convinced you to propose." His wife pointed out, smiling through her wet eyes. "Who knows how many awful carriage rides you would have taken me on until you finally asked?"

James smiled up at his father. "I thought nothing scared you, dad."

"Your mother did," Admitted Will ruefully. "Still does,"

"And ducks." His daughter chirped happily.

Tessa laughed along with her family. Will would always hate be mistrustful of poultry that wasn't headless and cooked. Some things never changed and for that Tessa would always be glad. "She never wanted to be a Shadowhunter." Tessa explained, nodding to the fair haired doll. "Hated everything about them."

"Hated being a Shadowhunter?" James gasped. "How could anyone hate such a thing?"

Will nodded down at his son. He saw so much of himself in his James, and so much of the man that he was named after. "She did. She could be such a pain. But in the end she was one of us through and through." After a long silence Will spoke the words he'd never swore he would never admit to anyone, not even Tessa. "I loved Jessie."

"We all did," Tessa agreed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "And even if we drove her mad, she loved us too. And we'll never be able to forget her."

While they talked only two of them, father and daughter, saw the beautiful girl with fair golden hair watching the family who she would always protect along with anyone else in the Institute. Will didn't need to look at her to know that she was there, but Lucie gazed at the small girl whose eyes were wet with transparent tears that only the two of them bothered to notice.

"He's right, you know," Jessamine whispered to Lucie who tensed at the sound of the spirit's crystalline voice. "I was a pain. But Will was always worse."

They stood there for a long time after that. The Herondale couple shedding quiet tears filled with memories about the friend that they'd lost, their children gazing up at the home where the mysterious girl once lived and played and Jessamine knowing that she'd be a part of their lives, even if they didn't know she was there or that she protecting them every step of the way. She would always be with them.


End file.
